**** Original thread title: 'Mahogany, what's left in..' extrapolated from a reply by Audrey Karabinus. [Your point] I notice a lot of companies are experimenting again with laminated boards, I assume to save on wood costs. [Your point] Do you have any idea how much a manufacturer saves by using a laminated board instead of a solid one? [Your point] I also notice the soundboard grain counts are dropping per inch from over 15 down to about 6-8 in lots of pianos! ---end of quoted material--- Sorry for jumping in here, but if you'll notice your message contents as stand-alone line items, another, more discrete message starts to form. [Harvey's soap-box mode on] My best understanding of the spruce situation is this: for a long time we have been running out of quality spruce. Focus is on the word "quality" here. I feel that if we (the industry) exercise conventional wisdom, we'll all be happy campers. Item. Manufacturers need to call it what it is -- laminated or solid spruce. In other words, stop rummaging through the word processor's thesaurus in an effort to make the the verbage on laminate boards a pill that's easier-to-swallow. "Compound solid twin veneer dress-ply multi-tiered semi-crossbanded double-clutcher" is far too illusive.. and far too intensive for the pianos these expressions are used for. It's an extension of advertising, much like the "upright grand". And we'll still be dragging that dead horse behind us for another hundred years. Item. Manufacturers (advertising) need to back off the gpi count as a ploy for spec sheets. More is NOT always better when discussing piano soundboards. Comparison? For illustration only -- similar to hammer weight -- it's an "inside" expression that got out when someone thought that heavier made for better reading in brochures. Item. Technicians need to educate themselves on the facts of laminate boards. They do have merits, although they will be in the "solid-state versus vacuum tube" argument stage forever. Or, until there is only option to discuss, whichever occurs first. Item. There will likely always be solid boards available to rebuilders. The color match and gpi may not always be what we learned to know, but a few quality, solid boards for rebuilders do not impact the supply like the numbers required for manufacturing purposes. People have an uncanny way of dealing with the truth, that is, assuming they are provided the truth and not a smoke screen. Here are my impressions of the truth from my vantage point: . We are running out of -quality- spruce; . The cost of solid versus laminate is (or was) about the same. Whatever is gained on material costs of a laminate board is lost in labor intensity on the laminate board. . The dress plies in a cross-banded board must be premium -- far more so than that of a solid board. Think about this one; there may be a test later. . I have heard, and have witnessed other other top-drawer technerds attempt to identify a sandwich board in certain pianos. We both failed. . The quality -solid- spruce is (or should be) reserved for those instruments that -deserve- to have it. This precludes it's use in $995 [retail] pianos that sell for $3995 [retail]. That was not a typo. It also precludes those customers who buy pianos, in spite of heavier hammers, chrome-plated german-silver valve guide covers, or... See, it doesn't matter whether it's pianos or sports cars. Owning a flashy car with all the bells and whistles no more makes one a rally or race driver any more than an 55gpi soundboard with 87lb. hammers means that John Q. Customer is going to play any better or use the piano more than a couple of times a year. The client is -going- to buy that spiffy console cabinet with the lid that props up like a grand, opens the wrong way for tuning, and is impossible to remove without surgical procedures. After delivery, the topboard will weigh too much to raise due to the aquarium that's sitting on it. It's a moot point. These are the same folks who have the piano tuned every fifteen years -- whether it needs it or not. And, while looking at those beautiful match-stick legs that will break if you look at them cross-eyed, our client will never learn to play anything more difficult than "Come To Jesus". We have to accept certain things -- change -- like it or not, and make the most of it. That's enough for now. It's late. I just came back from a two-day work run, and shouldn't have even looked at the mail in this state of mind, never mind responded. -Jim Harvey PS: Potential Part II -- what about mahogany boards? What about sandwich boards? What about fiberglas or stainless steel boards? The technology is there -- and has been for a long time, as have the experiments.
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